1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lever-actuated electrical connector designed to provide better protection against an undesirable deformation of a lever during rotation thereof and, also, against an accidental removal thereof from a housing.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In a multi-pole connector assembly including a female or socket connector and a mating male or plug connector having twenty terminals or more, it is known that a relatively large operating force is required to connect the plug and socket connectors together. Because of this, the connector assembly in which a lever is employed on either the plug connector or the socket connector has been proposed. With this lever-actuated connector assembly, connection of the plug and socket connectors together is achieved by the application of a relatively small operating force to the lever as the latter operates under the principle of leverage.
FIG. 7 depicts such a conventional lever-actuated connector assembly which comprises a plug connector 12 and a socket connector 11 having a lever 13 rotatably mounted thereon. The socket connector 11 is of one-piece box-like construction and has a bottom wall 11a, a pair of side walls 11b extending upwardly from respective sides of the bottom wall 11a, and two pins 14 extending outwardly from the respective side walls 11b. Each of the side walls 11b has a notch 11d defined therein. The lever 13 has a pair of arms 13b spaced away from and parallel to each other and a connecting bar 13c integrally formed with the arms 13b so as to represent generally the shape of a figure "U". The lever 13 has two holes 13d defined in the arms 13b, respectively, for engagement with the associated pins 14 of the socket connector 11. The lever 13 also has two guide grooves 13a defined on associated interior surfaces of the arms 13b. The plug connector 12 has a pair of side walls 12a spaced away from and parallel to each other and two guide pins 15 extending outwardly from the respective side walls 12a. Both the side walls 12a and guide pins 15 are integrally formed with each other.
When the socket and plug connectors 11 and 12 are desired to be joined together, the plug connector 12 is mounted onto the socket connector 11 with the guide pins 15 guided into the guide grooves 13a of the lever 13 and then partially into the notches 11d of the socket connector 11. Subsequent rotation of the lever 13 in a first direction draws the plug connector 12 deep into the socket connector 11 to complete the connection of the two connectors 11 and 12 together. Removal of the plug connector 12 from the socket connector 11 is achieved by rotating the lever 13 in a direction opposite to the first direction.
However, the connection of the two connectors 11 and 12 occasionally requires a relatively large operating force to be applied to the lever 13. More specifically, rotation of the lever 13 brings about a relatively large friction force between the guide grooves 13a of the lever 13 and the guide pins 15 of the plug connector 12. This friction force has the effect of impeding smooth sliding motion of the guide pins 15 along the associated guide grooves 13a, and hence, a relatively large load is inevitably applied to the connecting bar 13c of the lever 13 in a direction shown by an arrow X, thereby bending the connecting bar 13c. As a result, the problem arises that the bending of the connecting bar 13c deforms or extends the arms 13b of the lever 13 outwardly from the associated guide pins 15.
Furthermore, deformation of the lever 13 prevents maximized utilization of the operating force, thus preventing easy manipulation of the lever 13 when the two connectors 11 and 12 are joined together. If the amount of deformation is large, there is a possibility of the arms 13b of the lever 13 separating from the pins 14 of the socket connector 11.